This is a repost as my original post had a ton of math related conversion mistakes (tests were originally all in pmol and nmol) which made the whole thing not make much sense. The below text has now been corrected
I’m one of those types who usually figures everything out. I have my own business where I earn money solving other people’s problems. However, I have a problem that I just can’t fix and it’s just making me confused as all hell. Maybe one of you can shed some light…
I’ll be 43 years old this coming February 2017. Discovered back in September 2014 that I had low test. Crappy sex drive, ED, and gyno which was being kept under control using Calcium D-Glucarate. Went to get my levels checked and this is what was found. I’m from Quebec so they use different units of measurement though I found some online calculators to convert everything into what the rest of the planet appears to use, namely ng/dl and pg/ml:
September 2014 - Baseline
Total Testosterone: 227.09 ng/dl which is too low
Estradiol: 13.27 pg/ml which is too low
T:E Ratio would be 17.11 which is low.
FSH: 3.09 (1.50-12.40)
LH: 5.23 (1.7-8.6)
Prolactin: 302.1 (86.0-324.0)
I finally jumped onto the TRT bandwagon in April 2016 with doctors from an anti-aging clinic that really, really had no idea what they were doing. I began using Androgel @ 7.5g daily and 25mg DHEA daily. Nothing. Bumped it up to 10g daily. Nothing. Then we moved to compounded cream @ 100mg daily. Nothing. Then I figured let’s try to go REALLY high to at least see if I get some sort of reaction. Bumped it up to 200mg daily. Still didn’t feel anything after several weeks. Bumped up DHEA to 50mg daily (we were testing DHEA-S levels and saw that I could safely take more). Nothing. Then I began to read about guys applying the cream to the scrotum so I tried it. After about 5 days my mild gyno started to flare up like crazy. I figured a bad reaction was better than no reaction at all so at least we’ve proven something. Sex drive was starting to pick up however as well as better erections. Went to get a new blood test and this is what we found:
September 2016 - 200mg compounded cream applied to the scrotum plus 50mg DHEA
Total Testosterone: 1232.85 ng/dl (target value is 800-1200)
Estradiol: 49.58 pg/ml (target value is 20-30)
T:E Ratio would be 24.87 which is still too low which means that E2 needs to be brought down quite a bit.
SHBG: 20.5 (normal range is 13.2-89.5)
I began taking 0.25mg Arimidex EOD. Gyno almost vanished, or at least about as non-existant as it’s ever been. One month later I went for another blood test:
October 2016 - 200mg compounded cream applied to the scrotum plus 0.25mg Arimidex EOD plus 50mg DHEA
Total Testosterone: 413.83 ng/dl (target value is 800-1200) (why did it crash this much??)
Estradiol tested as LESS THAN 73 nmol/L (they way they calculate things in Canada). Let’s assume, after converting to pg/ml, that it probably got down to around 16 pg/ml (target value is 20-30)
T:E ratio would be somewhere around 25 which would be good but now the testosterone levels are crap.
Stopped taking the Arimidex as I was off the chart low (and who knows how low it actually got). Within two weeks, gyno started coming back. Sex drive was still crap. Now back on Arimidex E3D. Got an appointment to see a TRT friendly Endo next month. Trying to make some sense of all this:
- Testosterone value of 1232 ng/dl in September 2016 was either correct or a mistake
- Testosterone value of 413 ng/dl a month later after adding Arimidex was either correct or a mistake
- Read that taking Arimidex can affect readings of Total Testosterone, possible?
- Is it actually possible for my testosterone values to crash that much in 30 days??
- What do I do now?
Guys, please, all the ‘experts’ in the field that I’ve seen in person in my area have been absolutely useless. I need an idea to be pointed in the right direction. Thoughts?